White House Says Medical Marijuana Raids Will End

The White House said it expects those kinds of raids to end once Mr. Obama nominates someone to take charge of DEA, which is still run by Bush administration holdovers.

"The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind," White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said. [Washington Times]

It looks like we’re on the verge of a major victory for state medical marijuana laws. For over a decade, this battle has raged from the hills of California to the Nation’s Capital. It has been a defining cause, not only for the medical marijuana community, but for drug policy reform as a whole.

There is no question that a great many challenges remain in our path, but let’s all take a moment to reflect on the fact that our president is poised to order the DEA to stand down. That is not something that happens easily or often. Today’s news suggests the pending culmination of a substantial effort by a broad coalition that is frequently perceived to lack meaningful political leverage. The political landscape is changing before our eyes and I believe we have much to look forward to.

Why can't people for legalization of marijuana make a huge advertisement showing the many ways legal alcohol is far worse than marijuana? It's the simple truth. For example: I do not fall over or stumble when I smoke, nor do I run into other cars or people,I have never become loud or violent after smoking,I don't puke on friends carpets or hardwood floors.I do not pee on the sidewalks.In fact I am a bit more self contained when I smoke. We must do something to show all the ignorant folks pot is not gonna hurt em.

While I am ecstatic to see Obama finally get off the dime and said something about the atrocious medical pot raids that have happened in California since his inauguration. And while I agree with Jacob Sullum at Reason, in principle, about Obama's lack of leadership in this issue, I also do NOT think that Obama can do anything about the raids, legally. Not unless he wants to show as much contempt for the rule of law that George W. Bush showed every day that he was in office.

I do think there are solutions and that if we do this right we can come out of it with a really big win for medical marijuana and maybe even for national pot law reform. The raids controversy is quickly evolving into a major opportunity for reform. Using this moment to advance Barney Frank's two pot decrim bills could make for some really fast change. Adroit conflation of the Frank marijuana bills with the massive budget problems in the states showing the potential that decriminalization offers the states could move reform ahead faster than anything else possibly could.

ordering a government organization like dea should take no more effort than that if Obama is their boss. If he is not their boss, I demand to meet whoever is the dea's boss.

I want to meet this boss so I can tell him how much a punk he really is for all the evil his work has accomplished. We no longer need your services, boss.

I have a broken back and I do not require your mouth in any way to have power over my freedom. Boss of the dea, I believe you are the cancer. I believe You are the problem because you have formed a government within our rightful government and your funds are illegal profits from crimes so you can continue your rotten self on our backs.

I sent Obama an email, today, via the comment'[email protected] addy and got this response:
Dear Friend,

Thank you for your message. On behalf of President Obama, we appreciate hearing from you. The President has promised the most transparent administration in history, and we're committed to listening to and responding to you.

In order to better handle the millions of electronic messages we're receiving and respond more quickly, we've implemented a new contact form on our website:

Please note that this web form has replaced [email protected]. That email address is no longer monitored, so we encourage you to resubmit your message through the link above. Thank you for using the web form and helping us improve communications with you.

Sincerely,

The Presidential Correspondence Team

Note that the comment form only allows you to type in only 500 CHARACTERS, not words, characters.

Maybe it's just me, but I find it facinating that Obama comes out for science, and that's exactly what drug reform needs. Obama might not support legalization now, but what if science changed his mind? Would he then support legalization?

I think Obama has a clue what is really going on. To me, his administration so far feels similar to Kennedy trying to work with the south and Martin Luther King to create equality. Kennedy had to deal with descrimination and descriminatory laws from racists willing to fight to continue to downgrade and harrass a different colored man. Maybe Obama thinks he has the drug war to work with this time in history? Sorta "free the slaves" of this era? Just like Kennedy, Obama does not have the full support of the rest of his government who fear change. Change that exposes certain players as racists and genocidists? Change that exposes certain laws that exist today, only because of 'outdated' hate and racism. Leftovers from an improving society, that once believed in slavery!

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Don't get me wrong, I think prohibition laws are heinous, but unless Federal laws are changed I don't see how the president will be doing anything more than furthering the absolutely arbitrary enforcement of the Fed-trumps-state nature of our system.

The DEA is acting like some mindless toy soldier. Turn it on, and it keeps running into walls and stumbling over obstacles on the floor.

The obstacle in this case is the virtual wall President Obama created when he and most of the recent Democratic candidates for president promised to stop the medical marijuana co-op raids by the DEA. The various DEA personnel who fail to recognize Obama’s plan to cease federal funding for these raids will not ingratiate themselves in any way with the new administration, and I suspect such people will face consequences in the near future for their lack of political foresight and refusal to cooperate.

If the President merely fires all the Republican U.S. attorneys and appoints new people to run the ONDCP and DEA, it won’t be enough. A bureaucratic shake-up is needed to ‘clear out the old underbrush’, as Dick Cheney would say.

Besides Cheney, the old underbrush includes people who prevent agencies such as the DEA and ONDCP from performing their duties in a legitimate, rational and scientific manner. A reorganization of these agencies is a key step for advancing drug law reform in the U.S.

Precedents exist for reorganizing federal drug agencies.

Due to corruption within the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN, 1930-1968), the FBN was merged to form the newly created Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNDD). Because of corruption within the BNDD, Nixon merged it with other drug agencies to form a newly created DEA in 1973. Owing to corruption within the DEA, later presidents attempted to merge the DEA with the FBI, a plan that went over like a lead balloon when confronted by corruption-wary FBI directors.

The problem with each of these drug agency reorganizations was that the government kept hiring the same types of whacked-out twits who from the beginning had caused so much trouble for their agencies and for U.S. citizens.

To correct this problem, a careful screening of new personnel, with an emphasis on recruiting people having open minds and an affinity for science (as opposed to selecting authoritarians and religious anti-intellectuals), would create a huge difference favoring drug law reform.

Of course, one major drawback to this idea is that it assumes enough open-minded people can be found who respect science and who are also be able to tolerate working in drug enforcement. If not, the DEA, ONDCP, and all related agencies, must be shut down.

...we don't need "Drug Enforcement " of any kind. Nor do we need a " White House Office" devoted to "Drug Control Policy". We do not need a" War on Drugs".Therefore ,we do not need a "drug czar". Just let it all go......and REGULATE! It's safer and cheaper.

with homegrown. Why not allow a person to grow a reasonable quantity of plants each year? Legalize the whole process from purchasing seeds to growing plants to possessing ganja buds to using the fruits of one's labor?